The present invention relates to communications, and more particularly, to a system and method which provides personalized assistance by allowing a user to preprogram a contact database such that the user can quickly reach a live customer service representative who can search the personalized database and connect the user to his or her desired destination or arrange to perform a service or purchase an item.
Society""s demand for virtually instantaneous access to information, and the need to quickly contact others is constantly increasing. To meet this demand, personal information manager (PIM) software for various types of computers, personal digital assistants (PDA) and global communication networks, such as the Internet, have been developed which facilitate access to data. For example, a person may have contact and telephone numbers stored in their PDA or electronic organizer, such that they can quickly determine the phone number of the person they wish to reach. Similarly, they may have a PIM database on their laptop which contains the same information, such that the PIM and PDA databases are harmonized, i.e., synchronized. Recently developed Internet software allows a user to harmonize a PIM contact information database with an Internet web site.
While the contact data may be available to the user, the data may not be readily accessible, or may be voluminous, thereby requiring the user to search through the contact data in order to determine the telephone number of the person they wish to reach. For example, a user driving in their car who wishes to determine the telephone number of another person must pull to the side of the road, or risk getting into an accident, in order to boot up their PC or interact with their PDA. This arrangement is dangerous and inefficient.
The proliferation of telephone communication technologies, including cellular (mobile) telephone technology, extends the ability of an individual to contact another to virtually any location in any situation. For example, a cellular telephone user delayed by traffic, or in an emergency, can contact others without the need to seek out a pay telephone or other means of communications, provided they know the telephone number of the party whom they wish to contact. The environmental conditions surrounding the individual""s use of the telephone, whether cellular or wire-based, does not always lend itself to easy retrieval of telephone numbers and contact information.
For example, an individual may program the contact data and telephone numbers into their cellular telephone and use the keypad of the cellular telephone to search through the stored database to locate and dial the desired number. This is often difficult when the user is driving an automobile, or is in another situation which demands their entire undivided attention. Even where the individual is not in a situation where their undivided attention is required, the individual may not want to fumble with their PDA or telephone, or boot up their personal computer (PC), to search for and access contact data.
Technologies have also been developed, such as voice activated dialing, which allows a user to initiate a dialing sequence by speaking the name of the individual whom they wish to contact into the telephone dialing unit. Voice activated dialing systems use speech recognition patterning to search through a stored contact database to initiate dialing. These technologies, however, typically require that the individual use a specific telephone, for example, a cellular telephone, which they have programmed to recognize their voice and have created a database of associated contact names and numbers. In other words, an individual typically cannot employ the use of voice activated dialing if they use a telephone or device which is not equipped to recognize their speech pattern. Network-based voice recognition systems are also cumbersome to use. Their operability is unreliable, and these systems are difficult and cumbersome to configure. In addition, these systems offer limited functionality, typically serving as mere dialing units. Voice activated dialing technology, therefore, limits the flexibility of a user to contact another person or arrange for the performance of personal services.
In sum, existing technologies allow individuals the ability to carry large volumes of information on their person, or access large volumes of information, and to communicate with others from virtually any location. However, these technologies do not allow the individual a quick, safe and efficient way to initiate contact with another from any location which supports cellular or wire-based telephony.
The present invention provides a system which allows the user of a telephone, in particular, a mobile telephone, to easily complete a call to a destination, even when they do not know the number, and without the need to recall the contact""s telephone number using the keypad of their telephone, and without the need to boot up a personal computer or hand-held computer such as a PDA.
The present invention further provides a plurality of techniques for users to create and update their personal contact list, and provides for the harmonization, i.e., synchronization, of users"" databases with a master database. The ability to harmonize databases further simplifies the process of maintaining multiple contact lists, while still allowing the storage of contact data in forms needed by different technologies.
As one aspect of the invention, a personalized assistance system for a user of a telephone is provided in which the personalized assistance system has a database including a contact list for the user such that the contact list includes at least one contact name and a corresponding contact number. Telephony hardware couples the telephone to the database. A customer service representative terminal is coupled to the database and the telephone hardware in which the customer service representative terminal searches the database in response to a user query to locate a designated contact from the user""s contact list and causes the telephony hardware to connect the telephone with the contact number corresponding to the designated contact.
As another aspect of the invention, a system for populating and maintaining a list of personal contact data for a user of the system is provided, in which the system has at least one user terminal. A web server is coupled to the user terminal through a communication network such that the web server receives personal contact update data from the user terminal. A first database is coupled to the web server such that the first database stores the list of personal contact data. The list of personal contact data stored in the first database is updated with the personal contact update data received by the web server.
As still another aspect of the present invention, a signaling method for a personal assistance system is provided in which a first dial string sent from a telephone is translated to a second dial string. The second dial string identifies an originating switch at least one of the originating service and originating service provider for the telephone. The second dial string is transmitted to a computer terminal, and a database is searched to identify a destination contact number. The database is searched to identify a network address of the originating switch in which the network address is identified in accordance with the second dial string. The destination number is sent to the network address of the originating switch using an out-of-band network.
As still yet another aspect, a method for using a telephone to contact a service for searching a database of contact numbers for a desired contact number and connecting a calling telephone to the desired contact number is provided in which a telephone number associated with the service is called. Data corresponding to the call is routed to a computer terminal, and the database is searched for a contact list corresponding to an identification number of the calling telephone. The contact list is retrieved and searched for the desired contact number. Call completion data is sent to a switch in which the call completion data corresponds to the desired contact number. The call is connected to the desired contact number.
Another aspect of the invention provides a method for populating and maintaining a list of personal contact data for a user of a personalized assistance system in which personal contact update data is received from a user terminal. A list of personal contact data is stored in a first database. The list of personal contact data stored in the first database is periodically synchronized with the received personal contact update data.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for using a telephone to contact a service for searching a database for desired information and performing an operation requested by a user is provided in which, a telephone number associated with the service is called. Data corresponding to the call is routed to a computer terminal. The database is searched for a contact list corresponding to an identification number of the calling telephone. The contact list is retrieved from the database. A requested operation is received from the user, and the requested operation is performed.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the invention which refers to the accompanying drawings.